Analysis of mutations affecting Ty-mediated gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Yeast translocatable, Ty, elements can cause constitutive synthesis of the glucose-repressible alcohol dehydrogenase (ADHII) when inserted upstream from the 5' end of the structural gene, ADR2. These insertion mutations, ADR3c, are unstable and give rise to secondary ADHII- mutations. The majority of such mutants, adr3, can be attributed to excision of the insertion sequence, leaving behind a single copy of the delta-sequence which occurs as a direct repeat at the ends of the Ty elements. A few adr3 mutants appear to be generated by DNA-rearrangements in the vicinity of the Ty insertion. The occurrence of recessive mutants, tye, which are unlinked to ADR2 indicates that the constitutive expression of ADR2 caused by the Ty insertions requires the function of trans-acting genes. These results support the idea that regulation of Ty-linked ADR2 is actively mediated by the insertion sequence and is probably not due to a mere disruption of the wild-type controlling site.